MotoGP 23, Loop8: Summer of Gods, Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX, Speed Crew, and SENSEs: Midnight hit the Switch

Critics aren't too englamoured by the Switch's latest RPG – Loop8: Summer of Gods, also available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC this week. Set eight months after a humanity-threatening event, it involves relocating to Ashihara to forge new relationships – with AI controlling NPC's emotions, which in turn impacts the story.

Most critics claimed that the concept, and setting, are intriguing but the combat system, tedious interactions, and bizarre design choices bog the experience down. Currently, the highest review score for the Switch version clocks in at 6/10 – with a handful of 4/10s weighing it down.

SENSEs: Midnight isn't too hot either, taking the form of a 32-bit era throwback survival horror. This means fixed cameras, tank controls, and limited inventory space to juggle. It also opts for a single setting – a haunted Japanese walking park. Once you’ve explored the park for an hour or so, you’ve seen everything laid out before you. All that remains is to collect keys and puzzle pieces and use them appropriately, all the while hiding from ghouls. Our review went live yesterday.

We also reviewed Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX – a PS2 vertical shooter given a re-release with new music, online leaderboards, and more. It brushes up well, right to the point where it's hard to tell that it was a PS2 game originally. However, it lacks the pizazz of later entries in the series.

Milestones’ MotoGP 23 also parks up on Switch, again a multiformat release. This year's edition offers dynamic weather and the ability to create stickers to decorate your bike and helmet. Last year's version suffered from a lack of online play and no split-screen, and it doesn't appear that either shortcoming is rectified here.

On the subject of racing, there's Speed Crew. No, this isn't a new arcade style racer. Instead, it's a new take on the Overcooked/Moving Out formula that puts you in charge of a pit crew, changing tyres and oil, etc mid-race. Might be a sleeper hit, this.

Then there's the side-scrolling adventure Noctural, Devolver Digital's diorama-based battler Bleak Sword DX, anime-style weapon-based brawler Demon Sword Incubus, and the comical quiz game Brain Show. Inspired by the PS2's Buzz! series, apparently.

Loop8: Summer of Gods – £44.99

Step into the life of Nini, a newly earthbound teen who arrives in the quaint Japanese town of Ashihara in August 1983. Explore the town, befriend its people, and face off against the Kegai in turn-based battles where the outcomes depend on the relationships you’ve built and the decisions you’ve made. Use Nini's special connection to the gods to reset the world, with each loop allowing Nini and his allies to relive the 8th month over and over until they get it right…or the Kegai overcome them entirely.

With one month until the world ends, how will you spend each day?

MotoGP 23 – £44.99

Open the throttle, pass your opponents and cross the finish line. Live the dream of being the next champion with the new MotoGP™23, more amazing and challenging than ever!

Compete in the three official championship categories MotoGP™, Moto2™ and Moto3™, step into the shoes of your favourite rider and head to the track to experience the adrenaline of the 2023 season.

Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX – £26.99

Soar sky-high in Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX, an electrifying entry in the classic arcade shoot-‘em-up series! Customize your music, wallpapers, game mode, and more before launching into high-octane aerial action!

Strap in and take off as Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX soars onto the scene! This enhanced version of Raiden III brings the action to Nintendo Switch™, complete with a fresh, high-resolution coat of paint. Choose your game mode, wallpaper, background music,

and more before setting your sights on the World Rankings. With an arsenal of customization options and features, this title continues Raiden's exhilarating push into the present!

Demon Sword: Incubus – £11.29

Play as Amila, the game's main heroine, and wielder of a forbidden magical sword, to drive back the demon invasion!

Use sword and spell combos to slash and blast through crowds of encroaching enemies!

When fighting giant bosses, guard break their defenses, find an opening, then obliterate them for good with a well-placed super deadly attack!

Avia corporation – £13.29

Avia corporation invites everyone to feel like the owner of an airline. The game that is an economic strategy where you need to reason and carefully consider every step towards building the airline of your dreams. In this game, a rational approach and strategic planning skill are important.

Super Drunken Guy – £6.29

Welcome to "Super Drunken Guy", a 2D pixel platformer where the goal is to collect as many beers as possible, but be careful – the more beers you collect, the blurrier the screen becomes!

Run through various levels, jumping over obstacles and enemies while collecting as many beers as you can. Each beer you collect will add to your overall score, but it will also make the screen more blurry, making it harder to see what's coming up ahead.

The game features multiple levels with increasing difficulty, each with its own unique challenges and enemies.

So, put on your drinking hat and get ready for an adventure in this funny 2D pixel platformer!

Dogotchi: Virtual Pet – £11.69

PLAYER’S BEST FRIEND

Raise MULTIPLE pets simultaneously! Assume the role of a responsible dog parent, ensuring that each of their needs are met. Watch them grow into adulthood.

REAL-TIME GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE

Neglecting your pets for a long time can make them sick or even worse. Their destiny rests firmly in the palm of your hands. When you succeed, try raising a new friend and grow your dog family.

Flannel Amethyst – £8.99

Explore ten diverse levels with varying missions, such as collecting all gems or defeating all enemies. Double jump and airdash your way through the levels, utilizing your burst ability to reach greater heights.

Cat Souls – £4.99

In Cat Souls, you will be playing as Ruby, an energetic cat with a strange ability. Like all cats, Ruby has more than one life, but not all of them can use their past souls as a platform.

Ruby and her friend went on an adventure and successfully found the mythical Hourglass of time! Sadly the end of that adventure is the beginning of a new one.

Enemies appeared out of nowhere, and our protagonists tried to run but… only Ruby managed to escape. But she still has 7 lives! Now is the time to rescue your friend and get the Hourglass of Time back!

Jump, avoid obstacles, use levers, and collect keys to reach the end of each level in time. The spikes will only take one of your lives, but be careful not to waste them all!

Pool Together – £4.49

Pool Together is an amazing classic pool game. No matter where you are, you can play it anywhere! Spend hours in this absolutely amazing classic game and challenge the AI or your friend!

Kitten Island – £8.99

In a land full of challenges, jumps, secret areas and meows. Play with a very special kitten. To win, break blocks, jump over other little animals, dodge dangerous spikes, and progress to the next level, all while traversing through diverse landscapes ranging from lush forests to icy glaciers and scorching deserts.

Dreamy Trail – £4.49

Dreamy Trail is a game that allows you to explore the lush forest environment at your own pace. The game mechanics are simple, intuitive, and designed to provide a relaxing and calming experience. The game focuses on item hunting, which adds depth to the story and unlocks new areas for you to explore.

Graphics and Sound:

The world of Dreamy Trail is brought to life by stunning graphics, with vibrant colours and intricate textures that create an enchanting atmosphere. The game's soothing soundtrack complements the visuals perfectly, adding to the overall peacefulness of the game.

SENSEs: Midnight – £13.49

Uesugi Kaho is an outgoing and adventurous college student and member of her school's occult research club. When returning to Japan for a family visit, the other club members dare Kaho to investigate an infamous urban legend, The Midnight Door of Ikebukuro Walking Park. Kaho jumps at the opportunity to prove the legend true and capture positive proof of the paranormal, but entering the long abandoned park may be the worst mistake she will ever make.

SENSEs: Midnight is a 3D survival horror game inspired by genre classics, featuring tank controls and fixed camera angles in nostalgic style. Discover the secrets of the park via environmental storytelling and lore, manage limited inventory slots carefully to avoid backtracking, weigh risk and reward on puzzles that may alert vengeful spirits, use hiding spots to temporarily elude your pursuer, and remember, there is only one place you can safely save your game. Expect the Ikebukuro Walking Park to ooze dreadful atmosphere while the ever-present threat of a relentless Onryo stalks you!

Inhabit – £4.49

You wake up. You’ve barely left your room in days, your place is a mess. You’ve neglected any form of self care for over a week. But today is different! Today's the day you finally get something done.

Make your way around your home and surrounding areas, practicing healthy habits and exploring the world in this short open ended slice of life puzzle game. You may even make some friends along the way!

Enjoy this calm, wholesome experience as you transform your home and your mind into a place you’d like to inhabit!

Nocturnal – £17.99

Ancient soldier of the Enduring Flame, find out what happens to your brothers to free your island from the dark Mist.

A mysterious fog covers the island and chases you on sight. Make your way into it to discover its source and make an end to this.

Combat challenging and varied enemies that block your way to your goal.

Speed run options are available. You can select those to improve your speed-run time.

Angel Symphony – £1.76

Angel Symphony is a 2D shooting game.

Fight off demons that have taken on various objects such as hamburgers and the Statue of Liberty with your angel's bow.

If you place mini-angels that support your attacks, your firepower will increase, and if you defeat the bosses, your angel's abilities will also increase.

Characters based on motifs from various countries such as the U.S., Japan, and China appear in the game.

Conquer a variety of stages with famous classics and nursery rhymes.

Brain Show – £13.49

Brain Show: Who is the smartest one in your crew?

Brain Show is a quiz game spiced with some mean, but harmless humour. Immerse in the world of classic game shows: choose your categories, answer questions, eliminate rivals in various challenges, and prove yourself to be the smartest one in the pack!

Up to 8 players

Over 5 000 questions in 41 categories

13 competitions with entirely different rules

Sakura Dungeon – £19.99

Yomi, an ancient fox spirit awakens after several hundred years of deep sleep to find her precious dungeon has been taken from her!

Teaming up with a beautiful knight, together these heroines will unearth great treasures, reveal hidden secrets, and recruit monster girls to fight by their side.

The party must avoid perilous traps, fight dangerous enemies, and battle epic bosses to outfox the devious plans of the new dungeon lord.

Mask of the Rose – £16.99

Welcome to Fallen London: a darkly hilarious gothic underworld where death is a temporary inconvenience, the rats talk, and Hell is only a stone's throw away.

Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn't shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.

New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?

The possibilities for personal connection in London are different now. Thrown together in crisis, you might befriend or romance many of the characters you meet, from Griz, your assertive housemate for whom the Fall was a chance to break free of Victorian societal norms, to the infernally well-dressed gentleman at the Brass Consulate with the amber eyes.

Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect…

Cubic Figures 2 – £0.89

Cubic Figures 2 is the next part of minimalistic puzzle game where you need to make up different figures from a number of given shaped blocks. But this time all the figures will be house themed.

Take the block, rotate if needed and put it into the outlined figure to fill it. Repeat until all the blocks will be revealed and the outline of the figure will be filled with shaped blocks.

Bleak Sword DX – £8.99

Pure, thrilling, and wonderfully cruel, Bleak Sword DX is a dark fantasy action game challenging warriors to fight their way through compact, cursed diorama battlefields.

Through twelve tense and deeply atmospheric chapters, you must lift the curse of the legendary Bleak Sword by striking down all manner of horrifying creatures across an oppressive world wielding fierce weaponry and powerful magic.

This striking experience is scored by award-winning composer Jim Guthrie, with sound provided by famed designer Joonas Turner.

A Painter's Tale: Curon, 1950 – £6.29

"A Painter's Tale: Curon, 1950" is a story about love and resistance, an adventure game about historical memory. The bell tower that comes out of the lake is the last memento of the old village of Curon, flooded by the waters of Lake Reschen in 1950 due to the construction of a dam, despite the protest of the citizens. The plans for the dam started during the Fascist era, opposing the interests of a big industrial group to the wellbeing of the villagers, who were forced to leave their homes and pastures.

The main character of the game is a painter visiting today's Curon Venosta, the new village built after the flooding. The painter is dragged into the lake by a mysterious woman and wakes up in the past, in the old village of Curon as it was before the flooding. Around him, the villagers witnessed the tragic event at the time.

"A Painter's Tale: Curon, 1950" is not a documentary, but a tale where history and fiction overlap.

Talk to Strangers – £4.49

Work for Sunny Morning™ and sell products of the most varied natures!

What kinds of products, you ask? Do not worry about it, your role is only to sell them

Each step of the conversation can increase or decrease your Rage, Depression and SALES!

Choose carefully which house to visit at each time of the day: The mood of each potential buyer varies with time!

Balance your spending between Motel daily costs and items that help you deal with Rage and Depression.

Speed Crew – £16.75

Get ready for a high-octane, cooperative party game experience in Speed Crew! Assemble your team of 1-4 players, and take on the role of an elite pit crew tasked with fixing cars and beating the clock to secure victory in this fun and chaotic adventure. With an engaging storyline featuring the antihero Dominion Torrento, you’ll need to work together through four racing championships across four decades, from the 70s to the 00s, to teach him a lesson he won't forget.

Next week: Jack Jeanne, Fall of Porcupine, Corbid! A Colorful Adventure, Stay Out of the House, Alchemic Cutie, Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale, The Fairy's Song, Tails of Trainspot, ProtoCorgi, Sqroma, Dordogne, Brave Soldier – Invasion of Cyborgs, and BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls’ Story.